Halloween Town is one of my favorite places to haunt (embarrassingly bad pun alert). Admittedly, I don't go there often, due to the distance, but my ex job from hell was only a few blocks away, and I would go there after work to remember that I was a person that loved zombies, not a zombie myself.
This store is open all year, and boy am I ever their prime demographic ! Yes, this place admittedly has it's share of faults, but I choose to focus on the part that is sheer awesome.
While one portion of the store is filled with your typical cheap costumes, I have heard that most of these have been moved to an second location (I will make sure to update this, after my next visit). Cheaply made, pricey, costumes, party supplies, and Ben Nye makeup kits are the fairly boring norm of any Halloween store, but this is such a minuet portion of the experience, and frankly not a surprising aspect at all.
The layout seems to be constantly changing, and rumor has it, it's changed again in the last few months (her gears turn as it becomes more and more clear that she must go here).
There is always a room of art prints for sale, and they are cheap for art prints. I would walk out of there with 15 of them wrapped up if I could. My friend gave me a print from there by the artist, Dienzo; it's entitled "Mona" (for those of you that like to look up art and artists). I would like to own a lot of other pieces in that collection, but my next planned art print purchased from there is a painting called "Gomez & Morticia," by Bob Lizarraga.
In the same room as the prints are some of their higher end gothic decor. Bats under glass, or beautiful tincture bottles with macabre labels. You won't find anything in this room displayed on the website, with the exception of some of their books, that we're living against the side wall for a bit.
Outside of this room they carry some collectables and action figures (all horror related), a small selection of books, stationary, socks, ties and gloves. They offer a lot of quirky stocking stuffer type items (absinthe mints for example. Yes, fairly useless to many as they don't have any of the effects of Absinthe . . . . if that is indeed how you roll).
Badass gothic shirts - scary prices. Día de los Muertos section is small but very pleasing to the eyes - I have purchased a gift or two from this section. Their old school/Americana Halloween collection is absolutely fantastic.
I have girl wood for quite a lot of bags in this store, and let's just include card cases, jewelry, and bows, in that statement. They do carry some exclusive Rob Zombie merch, as he has worked with this store quite a bit.
Oh did I mention the total panty dropper, look but do not touch, vintage piano that I love there ? Yeah, there's that.
Last but certainly not least, the store holds simply delicious gallery art shows. Obviously the shows are small, but I generally just want to eat up everything that is on display. I have never attending opening night of one of them, but have seen the work and prints afterwards. Their Edgar Allan Poe show couldn't be beat, and their annual "Tribute To The Haunted Mansion" art show is always a blast and a half.
PROS :
- Pretty much what was just covered in this review. A unique place to go if you want to get your spooky on in more than just the month of October.
- I love a store that is also an experience.
- Play guess the horror flick with yourself as they always have a hidden t.v playing one.
CONS :
- Halloween Town doesn't fudge around with their rules ! And some of their rules are utterly annoying to me, and infuriating to others. NO cell phone use AT ALL. EVER. NO pictures, NO food or drink, NO standing and reading through a book, NO trying on of clothing, and NO returns. NO touching of certain items (be a grownup and resist the burning temptation to push the red button, so to speak). If you use checks - just a heads up, you can't use them here.
- Usually EVERYONE who works here is ice cold and super aloof. Normally this is unforgivable in my book, but . . . . there are SO few places like this that I do my best to ignore them, and begrudgingly attempt forgiveness.
Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Halloween-Town/66362229057
For your convenience (the website is tacky in comparison to the store, without a fraction of the products) : http://www.halloweentownstore.com/ read more